We’ve been telling our clients for years that utilizing a WiFi pre-shared key, or PSK, on their company network is no longer acceptable and that they need to take their network and data far more seriously.
The world being more aware of how sensitive data may be and why ensuring that the data we all have is maintained that way has helped us persuade clients.
Securing your network and the data stored on it has been businesses’ top worry as a result of PCI compliance, GDPR, and many high profile security data breaches in recent years. In light of this, we decided that it would be wise to inform everyone of the reasons why it is no longer appropriate to safeguard their data with a basic Wi-Fi pre-shared key.
WiFi Password Keys are Seldom Changed – Since it is difficult to change pre-shared keys on all client devices on a regular basis, WiFi Password Keys are rarely changed. As a result, the chance that they will be hacked increases with time. Your pre-shared key should be updated if an employee departs, a laptop or client device is stolen or lost, or after a particular amount of time has passed. The likelihood of getting compromised increases with the amount of time you wait.
Devices that are stolen or misplaced might access your WiFi password. It is straightforward enough to quickly and simply extract the WiFi pre-shared key from a device using tools that may be available online. Combining this with the fact that WiFi passwords are rarely updated results in simple network access. In theory, you need to update your WiFi password whenever you lose a device. But this is uncommon.
WiFi Password Keys are Simple and Easy to Remember – Due to the difficulty of utilizing and distributing pre-shard keys, administrators usually make their WiFi Password Keys straightforward and simple enough for any device they need to add to the network to remember. Because of the vulnerability in this straightforward method, hackers may be able to access your data by using a brute force assault to guess your key.
Employees continue to pose the greatest danger to network security, and the careless distribution of network keys results in simple access to your network. With the introduction of WiFi password sharing in Apple IOS 11, you may quickly provide another IOS user the Wi-Fi password for a network that you are familiar with. A common practice among IT teams is to post their WiFi passwords on a noticeboard in an effort to cut down on the amount of time needed to administer client connectivity issues.
Argument: Alternatives are too difficult to implement! This is an excuse we hear all too frequently, but it is no longer valid. With multiple sophisticated components (Network policy server, Certificate Server, etc.), 802.1X might be more challenging to install, however there are already easy-to-use WiFi on-boarding security solutions on the market.
The good news is that thanks to tools like Cloudpath , getting rid of pre-shared passwords has never been easier. Any device or OS may utilize this cutting-edge WiFi security and on-boarding solution, which offers certificate-based authentication in a simple-to-use package.
